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The Women's Rights Law Reporter Proudly Presents its 2009 Symposium:

WOMEN, LAW, AND THE ECONOMY

Date: Friday, November 13, 2009
Location: Rutgers School of Law, 123 Washington St., Newark, NJ
Register: Email burke.christine5@gmail.com
Getting There: Directions | Google Maps

Click here for the complete Symposium schedule and panel lineup.

This event has been approved for CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credit. 
CLE Credit Breakdown: 
PA CLE Credit: 5.5 substantive credits ($9.00 mandatory registration fee required payable to the "PA CLE BOARD")
NY CLE Credit: 6.5 substantive credits (approved pursuant to the approved jurisdiction policy) 
NJ CLE Credit: 6.5 substantive credits (approved pursuant to the approved jurisdiction policy)  

Featured Speakers:

  • For more information or questions about events and speakers, please email the Women's Rights Law Reporter's Symposium Coordinator at wrlr.symposium@gmail.com.


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    Speaker Biographies:

    Linda Basch, PhD, has led the National Council for Research on Women since 1996. Under her leadership, the Council has grown into a thriving network of 110 research, advocacy, and policy centers with a growing Corporate Circle of major corporations and a Presidents’ Circle of college and university leaders. Her areas of expertise include globalization; economic security; the impact of public policy on women and families; higher education; gender and diversity in academia, society, and the workplace; women in the corporate world, including work/life balance; human security; women’s leadership; and women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. An anthropologist by training, she has examined issues of migration, race, ethnicity, and gender, conducting field research in the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

    Previously, she has held positions as Director of Academic Programs at New York University, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Manhattan College, and Academic Vice President at Wagner College. She has also worked for the United Nations as a social policy specialist and a director of research. She has written and co-authored numerous books and articles for scholarly journals and also overseen the Council’s many special reports. Her articles, letters and interviews have been featured in major media outlets including the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and Fox News.com. She serves on numerous boards and advisory bodies including Ms. Magazine and the Women’s Rights Prize of the Gruber Foundation.

    Linda is an Elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a current member of the National Academy of Sciences previously serving as co-Chair of its Anthropology Section. She received her PhD in Anthropology from New York University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

    Aditi Bagchi focuses on contract and inequality. She is interested in the effects of socio-economic inequality on the formation and interpretation of agreements, especially employment contracts. More broadly, she explores the role that distributive justice does and should play in private law, the nature and role of intention in contract and other areas, and the comparative political economy of labor and corporate law.

    Dina Bakst, Dina Bakst is Co-President and Co-Founder of A Better Balance: The Work & Family Legal Center, a legal advocacy organization based in New York City.
    A Better Balance engages the government, the private sector, and individuals
    to create family-friendly law and policy.

    Prior to co-founding A Better Balance in 2005, Ms. Bakst was an attorney
    with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now Legal Momentum) where she
    engaged in litigation and conducted public policy advocacy in the areas of
    economic justice, child care and reproductive rights. From 2002-2003, Ms.
    Bakst served as the Deputy Issues Director for the Andrew Cuomo Campaign for
    the Governor of New York, where she developed policy on a wide range of
    issues affecting women and families.  Prior to that, she worked as a
    litigation/employment associate with Kaye, Scholer LLP.

    Ms. Bakst is a phi beta kappa graduate of the University of Michigan and
    University of Michigan Law School. She is also the mother of three
    daughters.

    Lavinia Lee Mears Esq., is the State Vice President of Public Policy for the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO) and a partner with the law firm of Stein McGuire Pantages & Gigl, LLP. NJAWBO is a not-for-profit organization with 12 chapters throughout the state.  For more than 30 years, NJAWBO has been dedicated to supporting the development and growth of women owned businesses.  As the oldest statewide women business organization in the United States, NJAWBO represents the interests of the more than 290,000 women business owners in New Jersey.   
    As head of Public Policy for NJAWBO, Lavinia is responsible for educating NJAWBO members about issues and legislation that affect women owned businesses; developing NJAWBO’s formal public policy position; and advocating for legislation that supports the interests of NJAWBO members. As an attorney, Lavinia primarily practices employment law, representing employees, high-level executives, and businesses in employment litigation and contractual matters.  Lavinia also assists corporate clients with preventing workplace litigation by conducting investigations into employee complaints of unlawful conduct; developing policies, procedures and handbooks; and providing management, employee and diversity training to create a work environment free of unlawful harassment, discrimination and retaliation. 

    In addition to employment matters, Lavinia represents individuals and businesses in commercial litigation and consumer fraud matters. An experienced negotiator, Lavinia has negotiated numerous hundred-million dollar technology contracts between corporations.  She also is trained to serve as a court-appointed mediator.   A former Assistant Prosecutor for the State of New Jersey, Lavinia regularly represents clients in criminal matters including felony, misdemeanor, traffic and municipal matters.  In 2008, the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO).  named Lavinia to the "NJAWBO 30," an elite group of 30 women business owners in the State of New Jersey.   

    Lavinia currently is serving her second year as President of the Women Lawyers of Union County.  She also is a member of various other organizations including the National Employment Lawyers Association; the New Jersey State and Union County Bar Associations; and is a Barrister in the Richard Hughes Inn of Court. Lavinia is an honors graduate of Rowan University and she received her law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law.  She is licensed to practice in New Jersey and New York and is admitted to the United States Supreme Court.   

    Lavinia’s writings have been published in numerous magazines and periodicals including the Practising Law Institute and she has assisted various authors in understanding trial procedure and criminal law.  Her work has been cited by The Yale Law Journal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Northwestern University Law Review and The Military Law Review.

    Robin Berg Tabakin Esq. is Founder and Managing Director of TECHNOFORCE LLC, a permanent staffing company located in Randolph, NJ.  She also consults on supplier diversity issues and has developed a program for the U. S. Army.  

    Ms. Tabakin served two terms as State President of New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO) and is currently a New Jersey Leader for Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP). She was appointed by Governors Codey and Corzine to the Government Records Council, and has served as Chairwoman for the past two years. She has also served on PSEG’s Supplier Diversity Advisory Council.   

    Ms. Tabakin holds an MBA from Rutgers University , a Juris Doctor from the University Of Dayton School Of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Cincinnati . She is a member of the New Jersey Bar.

    Bridget J. Crawford teaches Federal Income Taxation; Estate and Gift Taxation; Wills, Trusts and Estates; and Feminist Legal Theory. She joined the Pace faculty in 2003, after more than six years of law practice at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York. Her practice was concerned with income, estate and gift tax planning for individuals, as well as tax and other advice to closely-held corporations and exempt organizations. The graduating classes of 2005, 2006, and 2007 selected Professor Crawford as the Barbara C. Salken Outstanding Professor of the Year.

    Professor Crawford is a former Lecturer in Law and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her publications include articles on the income taxation of trusts, tax aspects of asset protection, the tax treatment of marriage and the family, women in legal education, and a feminist critique of pornography. Her present scholarship focuses on issues of gender and tax policy.

    Kathleen A. Bergin is a Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law in Houston.  She teaches courses in Property, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, First Amendment, The Politics of Race, and International Human Rights.  She is also the faculty advisor for the ACLU @ STCL and Law Students for Choice.  She is the recipient of the Houston Bar Association award for relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

    Prof. Ann Bartow is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She began her teaching career as an Honorable Abraham L. Freedman Teaching Fellow at Temple University School of Law, where she also received an LL.M. in Legal Education. Professor Bartow currently teaches Intellectual Property Survey Law, Copyright Law, Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law, Patent Law and Cyberspace Law. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection between intellectual property laws and public policy concerns, privacy and technology law, and feminist legal theory, and she has published numerous articles and book chapters on these subjects. She also administers the “Feminist Law Professors” blog.

    Ann F. Thomas began a second career in academic law with a fellowship year at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, after 17 years (10 as partner) working in the corporate tax department at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions. Professor Thomas spent two years as an adjunct professor at Yale Law School and joined New York Law Schools faculty in 1995.

    Professor Thomas, who teaches a range of tax courses and is codirector of the Graduate Tax Program, was drawn to academia because of the chance to explore and develop a subject she views as fundamental to how societies function.  In 1999, Professor Thomas organized a symposium for the New York Law School Journal of Human Rights on the subject of Women, Equity, and Federal Tax Policy: Open Questions. More than 20 experts from across the countrylegal scholars, economists, and activistsspent a full day examining tax policy problems that diminish the financial security of women, including the possible marriage penalty within the income tax code. With the help of the Marjorie Cook Foundation, the Journal of Human Rights distributed the symposium volume to every member of Congress, key Treasury and White House staff, law professors, and economists. The timing coincided with fierce debates in both houses of Congress over marriage and income tax.

    Lolita Buckner Inniss has served on the faculty of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law since 1998. Prior to joining the Cleveland-Marshall faculty Professor Inniss taught at Wayne State University Law School where she was the Martin Luther King, Jr./Cesar Chavez/Rosa Parks Visiting Professor for fall 1997 and spring 1998. She has also taught at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware where she began the immigration clinic and taught Administrative Law. More recently she has served as a visiting professor at Pace Law School where she taught Land Use Law and Critical Race Theory and as an adjunct at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada where she offered a seminar on comparative racism and the law.  At Cleveland Marshall, Professor Inniss teaches Property Law, Criminal Law, Law in Literature and Film and Race and the Law. Her current research is in the areas of critical legal rhetoric, comparative racism, and law in film.

    Susan J. Kraham is a Senior Staff Attorney and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School's Environmental Law Clinic. Susan has spent her legal career representing public interest clients with a particular focus on environmental and land use law. Prior to joining the Environmental Law Clinic, Susan served as Counsel to the New Jersey Audubon Society. From 1998 until 2005 she was an Associate Clinical Professor in the Environmental Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School, Newark. Susan was a 1992 graduate of Columbia Law School. She also has a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University’s Wagner School. After graduation from Law School, Susan clerked for the Honorable Justice Gary Stein of the New Jersey Supreme Court. She was a Skadden fellow. Susan was also an echoing green fellow where she partnered on a community-based environmental justice project.

    Kevin D. Walsh is the Associate Director of Fair Share Housing Center, a non-profit legal and policy center founded in 1975 to advance and protect the Mount Laurel doctrine. A graduate of Rutgers School of Law in Camden, Kevin joined the Center in 2000 following a clerkship with Associate Justice Gary S. Stein of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Under the direction of Peter J. O’Connor, Fair Share Housing Center has long been involved in litigation challenging exclusionary zoning in New Jersey, one of the most racially and economically segregated states in the nation.

    Prof. Rachel Anderson, is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  She teaches business organizations, human rights, and international business transactions. Her research interests lie at the intersection of those subjects and her current scholarship focuses on Global Corporate Citizenship. Before entering academia, Professor Anderson was an associate in the London office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In her law practice, she acted for banks, private equity, national governments, and transnational corporations in a variety of international business transactions. Before law school, Professor Anderson worked in Berlin for a subsidiary of the German utility Mannheimer Verkehrs- und Versorgungs AG. She consulted on European Commission technical assistance projects in the Russian Federation (EU Tacis Programme) and energy policy training for public officials and private sector experts in Eastern Europe (EU Synergy Programme).  Professor Anderson received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds an M.A. degree in international policy studies from Stanford University and a Zwischenprüfung from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

    Diane Houk is a civil rights attorney with New York law firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady.  She is the co-founder of the Fair Housing Justice Center in New York City where she served as Executive Director from 2004 – 2009.  After graduating from Columbia University School of Law in 1983, Ms. Houk worked in private practice for seven years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a civil rights attorney.  In 1991, she joined the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. where she served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section of the Civil Rights Division.  Ms. Houk was named by the Civil Rights Division as Special Litigation Counsel in 2000.  In that role, she oversaw the development and litigation of race, national origin, and religious discrimination cases involving land use and zoning, redevelopment plans, and affordable housing programs.  Since 2005, Ms. Houk has served as a Lecturer-at-Law at Columbia University where she co-teaches the Housing Discrimination Seminar and Externship.